Lancaster council warns residents that £1.7m in cutbacks will be needed next year to balance the books

Lancaster City Council provides hundreds of services including waste collection, street cleaning, maintaining parks and playgrounds, providing CCTV and supporting arts, culture and entertainment.

But with direct government funding now less than £1m a year, combined with the effects of inflation and increased demand for services, the council is faced with a budget gap of £1.7m in 2024/25 - and this is expected to increase year on year.

The council is now asking residents, businesses and organisations to help decide how it should bridge the gap.

A short survey open to residents, businesses and organisation within the Lancaster district will be used, alongside other evidence, to inform next year’s budget proposals.

Coun Tim Hamilton-Cox, cabinet member with responsibility for finance, said: “While the immediate seriousness of Lancaster’s own financial position is not quite as bad as that of many other councils, core funding has dropped by around 40% since 2008/09 and we are faced with significant, and increasing, financial challenges over coming years.

“The council is continuously reviewing how services are provided to ensure they are delivering all they can for communities and the local economy. To help us make what may be difficult decisions when we set the council’s budget, we need to know which areas people value the most and the reasons why.”

To put the financial situation in context, although Lancaster City Council collects council tax, it only keeps around 12p in every pound (around £4.78 a week or £248.56 a year for a Band D property) to fund services.

The vast majority of council tax goes to Lancashire County Council (73p), Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner (11p) and Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (4p).

You can get involved by sharing your views at Lancaster.gov.uk/budget-survey until December 17.

Anyone without internet access can pick up a paper copy of the survey from Lancaster and Morecambe town halls from 9am-1pm, Monday to Friday.

The council is also holding drop-in consultation events, with the first on Wednesday December 6 at the War Memorial Gardens in Carnforth from 10am until noon. This will be followed by a drop-in at Morecambe library on Friday December 8 from 10am-2.30pm. Further dates and locations will be announced once confirmed.